


Lost in Time

by ChiefRipley



Category: Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon, Timeless (TV 2016)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 18:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14574504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChiefRipley/pseuds/ChiefRipley
Summary: Following a betrayal in the bunker, Lucy and Jiya have to make a dramatic, and blind escape in the Lifeboat to the past. With no idea where or when they are, they have to rely on the help of new friends to get them back home.





	Lost in Time

**Author's Note:**

> I have a very rough idea on where this is going but it's very rough at present so tags and ratings may change. It's, hopefully, a fun little crossover that is canon up until the end of Timeless 2x08 when it becomes very canon divergent.

The first thing Lucy was aware of was pain; a searing pain through her wrist, and an agonising thump in her head. She squeezed her eyes tighter trying to push the pain away, but it was unrelenting. An insistent beeping began to permeate her consciousness, followed by the smell of smoke, making her cough.

“Jiya?” her voice was hoarse and she struggled to clear it.

“Jiya?” she managed more clearly this time, squinting her eyes open at the same time. The interior of the Lifeboat swam into fuzzy view as she heard a groan from the pilot’s seat. She turned her head towards the sound, and suddenly became aware of the fact that she was not in her seat. And her seat was not fixed in its bracket. And the Lifeboat circuitry was on fire.

“Jiya!” alacrity took over and she pushed herself upright. A little too quickly given her obvious concussion, but she managed to reach the young pilot as Jiya’s groans roused into a more aware state of swearing. Lucy hurried to help her undo her seatbelt and the two women stumbled over the internal wreckage of the ship to the door, managed to slam it open and tumble out, as sparks exploded inside and the fire grew to inferno size.

They looked up at the smoke pouring out of the door in horror. “I didn’t manage to get the protocol kit,” whispered Jiya in horror. “Or even get a read on when we are.”

There was a pause while the women took in their situation.

“Ok, one problem at a time,” said Lucy wincing and cradling her arm, properly noticing what she suspected was a broken wrist now that the immediate danger was passed. “First we’ll find some clothes for…wherever we are. Then we find somewhere safe to hole up and come up with a plan to let the others know where… ever we are.”

This pause was longer.

“Assuming they’re safe,” said Jiya, frowning. Staring into the flames the two women watched their only method of time travel go up in flames. “And assuming they can find another way to reach us.”

 

10 hours earlier.

“Lucy, Can I talk to you?” Wyatt was standing so close to her she could feel the warmth radiating off him. Coupled with his smell, she couldn’t prevent her thoughts travelling back to a warm, safe bed in Hollywood. She forced herself to take a breath, trying to clear her head before looking him in the eyes. Which were looking back at her more intensely than she expected for a casual Sunday morning with no blaring Mothership alarms.

He flicked his gaze down to the eggs she was cooking and his whole demeanour changed as he took in the mixture in the pan and clearly got distracted, “What the hell is that?”

Lucy shook her head and stepped back, ostensibly to brush off his insult to her cooking, but really taking a moment to put a little space between them. She had meant it when she said they had to move forward. That didn’t mean she found it easy especially when having to stay in such close proximity to him and Jessica.

“My eggs are delicious,” she retorted. He looked at her, blue eyes twinkling, a small smirk playing at his lips and flicked a questioning eyebrow at her. “They might be an acquired taste,” she muttered giving them a half-hearted stir, admitting to herself that they might have got a little burnt while she read a book propped up next to the hotplate. She decided that she’d have to start again.

With a sigh she turned off the heat and turned to Wyatt “What can I do for you, Master Sargeant?” she asked with a small but warm smile.

Whatever she was expecting, it wasn’t the sudden return to seriousness and intensity nor him leaning closer to her “Not here,” he whispered and cocked his head out of the shared living space where everyone was in differing states of waking up. He reached for her elbow, she assumed to encourage her to follow him, but he stopped himself; froze just before his fingers could graze her arm and awkwardly dropped his hand with a gruff clear of his throat.

She could see the memory of the last time he’d tried to initiate physical contact with her, to comfort her over the death of Alice Paul, and how it had made her jump away with discomfort. A moment of understanding and sadness passed between them. Despite all their efforts to return to their friendship, there was still something which remained unfixed between them. Something they both desperately wished they could fix. Rather he hovered his hand over her lower back. He never once made contact, and yet she could feel the heat of his hand and the tingle of her skin underneath it, despite the 3 layers of clothing she wore and 5 inches of space between them.

He guided her through to the bathroom, where he shut the door behind her and put a chair in front of it before turning to her. She looked at him expectantly, but all of a sudden he couldn’t look at her. He shifted from foot to foot and his eyes fixed on the floor. He cleared his throat twice, but still couldn’t seem to get it out. She was starting to feel nervous.

“Wyatt, what it is?” she prompted.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“Jessica just told me she’s pregnant.”

Lucy’s stomach plummeted. Well there it was. She had thought she had been moving on, that the miracle of a returned wife was enough to make her give up hope, but her physical reaction told her differently. Some part of her had been clinging on to what they had, but this was it, the final nail in the coffin. There was absolutely no going back now, not with a child.

She realised she must have phased out while she tried to process this news, because she was suddenly aware that Wyatt was much closer again, clutching her arms, holding her up it felt like, crouching in front of her to force eye contact, saying something she obviously hadn’t been listening too.

“Congratulations, Wyatt” she forced a stiff smile and tried to step back from him, but he wouldn’t let her go.

“Lucy, listen to me, she’s lying.”

Lucy’s world stopped tipping long enough for confusion to take over.

“What?” She shook her head. This morning was proving a little more dramatic than her still waking brain was ready for. “What are you talking about?”

Wyatt took a breath and a step back out of her space, confident that he had her attention back.

“She’s lying. There’s no way she’s pregnant.” He paused. “Or if she is, it’s not mine.” He was looking at the floor again, hands shoved in his pockets.

Lucy folded her arms and stared him down for a long beat. “How about we cut through this emotional rollercoaster and you explain what’s going on?” She demanded.

Wyatt sighed.

“I mean,” He paused, before taking a breath and ploughing forward. “She physically can’t have become pregnant since I brought her down to the bunker.” Lucy gave him a sharp look at this, to which he answered with a shrug and a wry twitch of his mouth before continuing. “Which means it would have had to have happened before. When I was piecing together how we got in this state, when I was waiting to see if she would give me a second chance, I found a journal that I, the other me, had on my laptop.”

“You write a journal?” Lucy interrupted, surprised. “Really?”

Wyatt gave a dismissive wave of his hand “A lot of Special Ops do it. It’s a technique to help compartmentalise. The point is that there was enough in there about my and Jessica’s relationship for me to know. She’d have to be, I dunno, like 8 months pregnant if I was about to be a dad.”

“Really?” mused Lucy, half to herself as she leant against the sink taking in what felt like a tumult of information. She was really desperately trying not to indulge the little part of her that seemed happily intent on focusing on the information that Wyatt and Jessica had not being going at it like jack rabbits down the hall from her.

“I have so many questions, but let’s focus on why she would lie to you about something like this?”

Wyatt’s entire body language relaxed as he took a step back and slumped into the chair barricading the door. He had unloaded a potentially catastrophic secret to his best friend and she believed him and seemed willing to help him work through this. That allowed him the space to focus on the thought that had been niggling at him for a few days now, but which he had resolutely been ignoring until now. Betrayal.

“I think she knew that I was getting close.” Lucy looked at him pointedly, prompting him to continue. He focused on her face using it to anchor him as he admitted quietly. “I think Jessica is Rittenhouse.”

 

In the past

Lucy and Jiya had been stumbling through the trees for what felt like hours. They had watched the lifeboat burn until neither of them could deny that there was going to be nothing to salvage from the wreckage. Then Lucy had gently reminded Jiya that they were going to get nowhere sitting there. 

Her wrist and head where in agony. They had tried to fashion a sling out of her dressing gown, the only spare fabric they had after their last minute escape, and made a decent job of it, but there was no denying that they were in the middle of nowhere, without food or water and requiring medical attention.

“I tried to take us back as far as I could to make sure we weren’t in our own time,” Jiya had said shortly after leaving the wreckage. “I just didn’t expect to be in such a wilderness. I’m sorry Lucy.”

“Hey,” Lucy said, snapping Jiya’s attention to her. “You have nothing to apologise for. The display was shot out and bullets were fine. You got us here in one piece and under enormous pressure and until I see a T-Rex appear out of the undergrowth I’m not giving up hope!”

That had earned a small fearful smile from Jiya. But it had been hours now, and still no sign of people, just bright blue sky, singing birds and undergrowth as far as the eye could see. Given the slope and the clear air, they were in agreement that they were in woods of some kind. Neither of them could bring themselves to talk about their real fear; in all the chaos, with the smoke and bullets, Rufus, Wyatt, Flynn, Mason and Agent Christopher had been left behind. Wyatt’s face as he shouted at them to go from across the bunker kept flashing into Lucy’s mind and she kept having to push it down “Survive” she thought to herself. “Survive and get back and we’ll figure out the rest later.”

The sun was getting low and it was getting cold when they finally stumbled into a clearing. Lucy’s head was starting to spin with the pain in her arm and she could tell from the furtive glances Jiya was giving her that she wasn’t looking to good. As they crossed the clearing, she felt her legs give out beneath her.

“Lucy!” called Jiya as she reached out to catch her but she landed hard on her knees all the same.

“It’s ok, Jiya, I just need to get some water I think” she muttered.

Then a new tone of urgency entered Jiya’s voice, “Lucy.” Lucy looked up to where Jiya was staring at the treeline to their right. To where three Native American men had materialised out of the treeline. Lucy was instantly alert, but the men didn’t come any closer. They clearly wanted to be seen, but not alarm the women. After a moment the oldest of the party stepped forward and gestured to Lucy. Specifically to her arm. She nodded once at him, still wary, but glad that they finally had human contact. He turned to his companions and said a few words which she couldn’t make out. After a brief conversation, one of the company, who looked none too pleased to be having to deal with this situation, left and returned with three ponies.

The oldest of the party gestured at them to come over, pointing at them and then at the ponies, clearly wanting them to mount up and go with them. Needless to say neither woman moved.

“What do we do?” Jiya asked out of the corner of her mouth.

“I don’t know,” answered Lucy. “They seem to want to help, on the other hand; two women alone in the middle of the woods with three strange men rarely ends well. Historically speaking. I can’t tell what tribe they belong to, especially without a time frame, but do we have any other options?”

Jiya and Lucy remained routed where they were. At which point the older man seemed to lose patience and turned to speak sharply to the third man in the group who was by far the youngest, just a teenager, really. He stepped forward with his hands spread wide and inclined his head slightly to the women, then seemed to search for the words. “Medicine woman” he said eventually pointing to the ponies.

Lucy knew she wouldn’t be able to go for much further and that in their casual 21st century clothing they wouldn’t do overly well in the mountain air at night. She looked at Jiya who was looking her up and down with concern and had clearly reached similar conclusions.

“Right,” Jiya said firmly. “Come on. We’re not going to get through this without trusting someone eventually.” She helped Lucy to her feet, and they hesitatingly walked to the gathering at the edge of the clearing. As they reached the men, the two younger men stepped forward and offered them well made buckskin tunics, similar to the ones they themselves were well wrapped in. The women accepted the additional layers with grateful smiles and Jiya helped Lucy into hers, wrapping her as best she could without jostling her arm too much. 

The men then picked the women up without a word of warning and dumped them unceremoniously onto the backs of two of the ponies. Without another word they turned the horses and begun to walk them diagonally up the mountain, in the opposite direction to which Jiya and Lucy had been walking. Jiya glanced back at Lucy and tried to offer her a comforting smile. Lucy tried to offer one back.

It was about an hour later that they heard a loud braying noise. During their trek, they had quickly reached a relatively well-worn path which they had wound their way up the mountain on. Expecting to see an Indian encampment, Lucy was surprised when the road led into a meadow with a number of 18th century Anglo-American buildings, some of which, including a big house further up the hill, were still under construction. The mule’s braying had alerted the settlers in the meadow to their arrival and a tall bear of a man with red hair tamed a little by an attractive grey had come from around the back the cabin to welcome the visitors.

“Duin do Chab!” the man shouted as he passed the paddock, but the mule ignored him and continued to holler at having his dinner interrupted. Lucy took in attire and the style of buildings and turned to Jiya.

“Late 1700s by the looks of things,” she whispered.

Jiya leaned slightly more towards her from her pony. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” She whispered.

Lucy hesitated. “It’s a complicated thing,” she hissed back. “It depends on exact time and location. Lot of changes going on. I don’t recognise the language he just spoke, so that doesn’t help.”

By this point the large man was stood about 5 feet away. He had welcomed the leader of the party with a wary friendliness, nodding his head to him but keeping a distance as well. Lucy didn’t miss the alertness in his eyes as he took in the sight of the women who clearly didn’t belong in the party, but he ignored them for the time being.

The Native Americans stepped forward and there was a short conversation that seemed to be made up mostly of gestures and short phrases that neither Lucy nor Jiya could make out. Suddenly the conversation broke off amid agreeable grunts of acknowledgement and the two younger men came over and lifted Lucy and Jiya down off their ponies. Lucy winced as pain shot through her arm and could feel her consciousness start to swim a little. As things came back into focus, she realised that their rescuers had disappeared as fast as they’d appeared, and they were now left standing in front of a new stranger who was appraising them closely. Not unkindly, but definitely assessing them. Lucy and Jiya considered him back, wary and unsure as to why they were here but with few alternative options. His eyes fell to Lucy’s arm, wrapped haphazardly in her brightly patterned dressing gown, and he raised in eyebrows in curiosity, but he made no comment.

“Aye, well,” He sighed in a lilting Scottish accent as he turned back towards the cabin from which he’d appeared. “You’d better be coming along and let the Doctor take a look at you, then.”

He strode off, under the expectation that they would follow and as they took in what he’d said they glanced at each other and took off after him.

He marched round the cabin where a graceful woman with mostly brown curly hair, and just a little grey, was busy studying some jars lined up on a table, hands on hips and a frown of deep thought on her face. Lucy was struck by how well she looked. She was obviously older, but by all accounts of this time period, seemed to be aging very well.

“Sassenach,” said the man gently, calling the woman’s attention to him. She looked at him with a small expectant smile, before realising he had people with him. “A couple of waifs found on the mountain by the Tuscarora.” He inclined his head at them. “Ladies, if ye’ll excuse me, I’ll need to be getting on.”

“Uh, thank you!” Lucy managed to get in as he turned away. He threw her a small smile and a nod of his head before disappearing. Lucy turned to see the woman walking towards them.

“Alright, over you come,” she said indicating a wooden bench next to the house. “Let’s have a look at you.”

Jiya helped Lucy over the bench as the woman leaned over her to untie her sling. “I’m Jiya, and this is Lucy,” she introduced. The woman paused and gave them a small warm smile. “Nice to meet you, I’m Claire Fraser.”


End file.
